Managing Print Costs for Wide Format Ink Plotters

Over the weekend I took the time to finish one of my spreadsheets that enables us (Print4Pay Hotel members) to identify the cost per square foot for HP inkjet plotters.  Let me tell you this was no easy task.  Why in the world is there no information from HP that states how many mililiters of black ink is used to print one square foot for a CAD drawing?  Every time I searched the HP web site for additional information about cost per page for Designjet plotters I was stymied by a notice that stated there was no information.

I was able to find a few documents that related to color use, but nothing related to CAD drawings.  Each HP plotter cartridge tells us how much ink is in the cartridge, but you'll never use all of the ink due to evaporation, ink head cleaning/purging and some residual ink left in the cartridge.  For example one cartridge has 69ml (mililiters) of ink.  Thus I was curious as to how much ink is a mililiter.   A mililiter measure to be one thousandth of a liter.  I know liters because that's because most of the soda bottles are now measured in liters, but how about a mililiter?  Is that less than a shot glass, more than a tablespoon? I found this handy document that tells us 1ml is also equal to 1cc, 2.5 ml is equal to a half of teaspoon, 5ml is a teaspoon, and 30ml equal two tablespoons or 1 fluid ounce.  Ok, I get it so the HP cartridge that hold 69 mililiters of ink is equal to a little more than 2 ounces.  Since the cartridge resells for $69, the price per mililiter is $1.00.

As I stated the key was to

5 Reasons Not to Buy a Refurbished Plotter from the Internet!

My Momma did NOT raise a fool! Today one of my clients asked to quote on a 42 inch plotter. As always, I whipped up a competitive quote for one of our Epson’s and emailed it over to them. After a follow up call I found out that they are going to buy a refurbished HP from some jackhammer web site that is offering the 42 inch plotter for around $2,700. I also found that this plotter was intro’d in 2009 and is possible two years old already. So, here are 5 compelling reasons to stay away from a refurbished product.

1) If you’re not buying directly from the manufacturer, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the system is not refurbished but it’s been USED and ABUSED.

2) It’s refurbished why? Because it did not work out of the box (it was a DEFECT), and pray tell who refurbished the product, was it someone with a good six months experience with plotters. You’ll never know until you get another repair bill.

3) Will the web reseller of the product put someone on site to make a repair if the plotter arrives and it’s still broken? If they don’t who will you call, someone you’ve never done business with before.

4) Support: You’ve got the plotter, you set it up, and you have questions about the operation or the print driver. You call the manufacturer and they tell you the system is out of warranty and if you need phone support you gotta pay!!

5) The print driver disks, and the manual are missing, along with that you did not comprehend the specs right and you find out that the stand is optional along with the network card and additional memory. The cost is not longer $2,700 plus now you’re losing productivity because you need to order the additional items, wait for them to arrive and then install them.

When I first got into the copier business, one of the best quotes I ever heard was “The thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service”. In this case the poor service would be all of the above.

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh Set to Launch Color Plotter

Well, we Ricoh Family Group wide format guys and gals have been asking for a color plotter for years! Finally, it seems we are going to get what we've been asking for.

In few short days Ricoh will "officially launch" the Ricoh 7700 and Ricoh 9700. The Ricoh 7700 is a 24 inch wide color plotter that has five ink cartridges, three for color and two for black, while the 9700 is a 44 inch model with all of the same features of the 7700. MSRP for the 7700 is $2,995 and $4,995 for the 9700.

This information is available on Ricoh's web site? NO, not yet, however it is on Epsons web site. Here's the link 7700 & 9700

There's also a link to buy this system through the Espon site, however when you click the link you are directed to Ricoh's web site. It seems this model Epson will only be resold through Ricoh Family Group Dealers and Ricoh branches.

I'm a little curious, will these plotters have the Ricoh name on them? Will all of the branding be Ricoh or Epson?

We, it really doesn't matter, Ricoh's got a strong wide format presence and one of the items missing was a low end device, the thinking is that the new plotters will act as a seeding with the hope that in a few years users will migrate to the larger devices.

Over the last 12 months more and more low end AEC users have been pulling the trigger on low end plotters due to the fact that they are receiving files and plans via email or via disk.

I think it's gonna be a winner for Ricoh and a great seeding program.

-=Cheers=-